Hitherto the French troops employed in Aragon formed a part of marshal Bessieres’ corps, but the emperor now directed Lefebre to repair with his brigade to reinforce that marshal, and constituting the ten thousand men who remained with Verdier a separate corps, gave this last general the command of it, and promised him reinforcements. Verdier continued to press the siege as closely as his numbers would permit, but, all around him, the insurgents were rapidly organising small armies, and threatened to enclose him in his camp. This obliged him to send detachments against them: and it is singular, that with so few men, while daily fighting with the besieged, he should have been able to scour the country, and put down the insurrection, as far as Lerida, Barbastro, Tudela, Jacca, and Calatayud; the garrison of Pampelona only assisting him from the side of Navarre. In one of these expeditions the powder-mills of Villa Felice, thirty miles distant, were destroyed, and the baron Versage being defeated, was forced to retire with his division towards Valencia. [Sidenote: Cavallero.] During the course of July, Verdier made several assaults on the gate of El Carmen, and others on the Portillo, but he was repulsed in all. The besieged having been reinforced by the regiment of Estremadura, composed of eight hundred old soldiers, in return made a sally with two thousand men to retake the Monte Torrero, but they were beaten, with the loss of their commander; regular approaches were then commenced by the French against the quarter of St. Engracia and the castle of Aljaferia. The 2d of August, the besieged were again reinforced by two hundred men of the Spanish guard and volunteers of Aragon, who brought some artillery with them; the French likewise were strengthened by two old regiments of the line, which increased their numbers to fifteen thousand men. [Sidenote: Ibid.] [Sidenote: Cavallero.]